


Stimming

by SamCyberCat



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 01:51:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16254242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamCyberCat/pseuds/SamCyberCat
Summary: Perhaps Haru and Kisumi are two very different people, but in some ways they're learning they have more in common than anyone realised.





	Stimming

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Love Free! Week, Day Four, Prompt B: What are some habits they've picked up from one another? Inspired by this post: https://twitter.com/karumello/status/1044411096256385025

Like most things to do with Kisumi, it had begun as irritation and transformed into fascination.

On the surface, there were no two people more different than Haru and Kisumi – anyone could see that. Kisumi was the loud, bright, social butterfly and Haru was the quiet, subdued person who kept to a close circle of trusted friends. Of course there were times when Kisumi was quiet and even when Haru was loud, but for the most part, the differences between them were as stark as night and day.

When the two of them first got together, Coach Azuma had described it as “quirky”. Haru doubted that he'd meant anything much by that, but the word stuck with him all the same. Haru and Kisumi were quirky. He wondered if that meant other people believed they wouldn't work out. A fleeting interest. A passing fancy as two very different souls tested the waters. Not that he cared too much about what others thought in regards to their relationship, at least if it was negative. It was Haru and Kisumi's choices where their relationship went, not anyone else's.

And for the past few months, it had been going surprisingly well. Being together had shown them both that although they had many differences, they also had a surprising amount in common. It was just that their similarities manifested in less obvious ways.

Kisumi had bouncy leg.

It wasn't as if he did it on purpose, but that didn't stop it from annoying Haru at first. They'd be sitting in the living room, watching TV or reading or doing anything else, and then suddenly Kisumi's crossed leg would start bouncing up and down. Kisumi would laugh about it and claim that he was wearing off excess energy, which might well have been the case, but after a while of this, Haru suspected that he was stimming.

“Stimming?” Kisumi echoed, when Haru suggested it.

Haru pulled a face as he considered how to put it into words. He wasn't the best at explaining things, that was more Makoto's field. But dating someone as curious as Kisumi had seen to it that Haru was talking a lot more than before – he was relying less on Makoto to tell his stories from him. And for all Kisumi was loud, he was also a patient listener. He waited until Haru was ready to put his thoughts into words.

“It's something you do to help you feel calm,” Haru said, “When you're not doing anything else.”

Kisumi nodded; “Like how you fold up wrappers into little squares?”

“Just like that.”

And that was all it took for Kisumi to just get it. Haru didn't have all the answers about stimming, Google would serve Kisumi better for that, but Haru knew how it affected him and how it apparently affected Kisumi as well.

“Still, I'll try to ease off on it,” Kisumi said. He smiled across at Haru; “I see you watching when I do it.”

“Maybe I'm watching because I want to,” replied Haru.

All right, so he did tend to stare because it got on his nerves, but since he knew why Kisumi was doing it, telling him to stop felt unfair. Especially since Haru had more than a few habits that Kisumi never questioned. It wasn't just the folding up wrappers.

Haru got up from where he'd been sat on the floor looking over tomorrow's training schedule (when it came to serious practise, it sadly wasn't as simple as just jumping into a pool and getting on with it). He stretched as tall as he could and then went to join Kisumi on the sofa. This was another compromise that the two of them had reached – Kisumi loved PDAs, but Haru couldn't stand them. So instead, the two of them agreed to be closer and more affectionate in the privacy of their own apartment. Through being with someone as cuddly as Kisumi, Haru had found himself enjoying physical contact a lot more than he'd ever expected to. He curled up at Kisumi's side, wrapping an arm around his waist and watching Kisumi's leg bounce up and down.

“I can stop any time you want,” Kisumi offered again.

“When have I ever asked you to stop?” said Haru.

All right, so given their history of Haru being stubborn and Kisumi being persistent, perhaps that wasn't the best question. Which was possibly why Kisumi refrained from answering it. Instead he reached over to the side table next to the sofa and scooped something into his hands, before dumping them all onto Haru's lap in a shower of tiny pieces of paper.

“Here you go! I had a packet of mints earlier and thought of you,” Kisumi said.

Haru's eyes lit up when he saw the wrappers. He picked one up and started to fold it neatly into a compact square, just liked he'd always done since he was a child. It just felt good. Haru couldn't explain why, but there was something pleasing about the action.

So the two of them sat together for the rest of the afternoon, both idly engaging in their own stimming activities, while watching some nature documentary about how an octopus can hide from predators by covering itself with shells. To Haru, it was the most relaxing kind of afternoon he could ask for and he was spending it with Kisumi.

Yes, their relationship was going more than fine. It was going the best that either of them could ask for. Quirky be damned.


End file.
